Ask anyone who has spent a Friday night at the Hard Hat Cafe what to order and you will get one word: Doobs. The wings at 65 Old Broadway E. aren’t just fried and sauced. They are seasoned, fried, tossed in the house buffalo sauce and then finished on the grill, so they come out with a smoky char that regulars swear by. The name comes from a customer, not a chef, and the story behind it goes back more than 20 years.
The Hard Hat sits on Old Broadway East, and it has been one of North Haven’s neighborhood bars for decades. Today it holds a 4.4-star average across nearly 500 Google reviews, and the words that keep coming up are wings, live music, the pavilion and the staff.
How a regular named “Doob” changed the menu
In a 2022 interview with the Wing Addicts blog, owner John Acanfora explained where the bar’s signature came from. In the early 2000s, a regular known around the bar as “Doob” came back from a fishing trip to Alaska raving about chicken wings he had eaten there that were cooked over charcoal. The Hard Hat’s chef took the idea and built his own version: fresh wings and drumsticks, seasoned, fried, sauced and then grilled.
“The flavor just bounced out because of our seasoning, combined with our own buffalo sauce,” Acanfora told the blog. “And those wings have been, by far, our top seller for over twenty years.”
Only the buffalo wing gets the Doob treatment. Everything else on the wing list is a straight-up flavor choice, and there are a lot of them.
The family behind the bar
Connecticut business records trace a long history at this address. A company called Torello’s Restaurants, Inc. was registered at 65 Old Broadway in 1988. A Hard Hat Cafe, LLC was registered there in December 1997. The company that operates the restaurant today, JPT, LLC, was registered in July 2003 and lists John A. Acanfora and John M. Acanfora as its principals, at 65 Old Broadway East.
Acanfora built more than one business. A 2024 CT Insider profile described him as the owner of the Hard Hat Cafe in North Haven, Hard Hat Cafe II in Wallingford, the Hard Hat Tavern in Durham, which opened in 2023, and Sam the Clam’s Pub & Grub in Southington, as well as Mount Carmel Construction, a demolition and abatement company that his son has since taken over. The Hard Hat’s own website lists three locations today: North Haven, Wallingford and Durham. North Haven is the original.
Some customers remember the building from before it wore a hard hat. “Hard hat is a child hood haunt for me. When it was called the Black Stallion, food was great and the set back games were always happening,” one longtime customer wrote on Google. “Friday nights were great times had by all, the place was always packed.”
The crew, and the “Doobie Sisters”
If you read the Hard Hat’s Google reviews, you will notice that the replies are signed. Joseph D’Errico, the restaurant’s director of operations, answers the good reviews and the bad ones by name. When Lindsey wrote this month that “the renovations are beautiful and the staff is great,” he wrote back that the team had “put a lot of work into the renovations” and added: “We have a great crew, and they work hard.”
The bartenders have their own fans. Marty, who grew up in New Haven and now lives in Maryland, wrote that whenever he travels through Connecticut he has to stop for apizza at Modern, Sally’s or Pepe’s. Now there is one more stop on his list. “I have been introduced recently traveling from Salisbury Md. to the best local bar in North Haven, Hard Hat cafe,” he wrote, thanking “Mo and Michelle, aka Doobie sisters.” His verdict: “The famous ‘Doobs’ are awesome.”
Lindsey summed up what keeps regulars coming back: “I have never had a bad experience here. Food is always on point! The atmosphere is excellent.”
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Twelve taps, a house pilsner and the pavilion
The Hard Hat describes itself as a place with 12 beers on tap, more than 25 bottled beers and 11 HD TVs, so there is rarely a game you can’t watch. There is also a house beer: the bar’s own Hard Hat Pilsner, presented by East Rock Brewing Co. of New Haven, according to the menu. It even shows up in the kitchen, in the beer cheese served with the pretzel logs.
In warm weather, the action moves outside. The covered pavilion is where the Hard Hat hosts live bands, and “live music under the pavilion” is one of the phrases Google pulls from its reviews.
What to order
Doob wings, obviously. Wings come in orders of six ($12), 12 ($22) or 18 ($30). Doob Style is the house signature. The other flavors are buffalo, buffalo-bleu cheese, BBQ, honey BBQ, teriyaki, lemon pepper, garlic Parmesan, root beer, maple bacon, chipotle cinnamon dry rub and sriracha dry rub. Danny, who stopped in on a work trip on a friend’s recommendation, wrote that the wings “were probably the best I ever had.”
Philly cheesesteak eggrolls. Three to an order ($14), served with chipotle mayo. There is also a Southwest version with avocado and ranch.
The Nashville hot honey chicken sandwich. New on the menu: a crispy, house-breaded chicken breast with coleslaw, pepper jack and pickles on a brioche roll ($17). The crispy Korean chicken sandwich, in a sweet and spicy sauce with avocado, is the other new arrival.
A burger, with waffle fries. The All American ($15) is the classic. The Hard Hat Burger ($17) adds mushrooms, grilled onions, bacon and bleu cheese crumbles. The Brunch Burger ($17) comes with a fried egg, a fried onion ring and maple syrup, and the Outlaw ($17) piles on chili, bacon, tobacco onions and cheddar cheese sauce. Any burger can be made as a wrap. Swap in waffle fries, sweet fries or onion rings for $1. Danny called the waffle fries “so amazing.”
A quesadilla to share. Tomatoes, jalapenos, black olives and cheddar jack ($14), with grilled or crispy chicken, buffalo chicken, shrimp or steak added for a few dollars more.
The clam chowder. New England clam chowder is $9 a bowl, and Danny said it was “hot and fresh.” For a full dinner, the mains include a 12-ounce NY strip ($24), bourbon steak tips ($23) and baby back ribs ($20 half, $32 full).
Not every night is perfect
Not every review is a rave. Last month, Lena wrote that the seat-yourself setup left the wait staff “very confused on who was taking care of who,” and that she watched a heated argument between a customer and a server. D’Errico replied that such a discussion “should never take place in front of our guests” and that the seating system is “something we need to do a better job managing.” Across hundreds of reviews, though, the pattern is people who keep coming back.
If you go
- Where: 65 Old Broadway E., North Haven
- Hours: The bar is open 11 a.m. to midnight. The kitchen is open 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, according to the restaurant’s website
- Phone: (203) 234-9857
- Online: hardhatcafect.com, facebook.com/thehardhat and @hardhatcafe12 on Instagram
- Also try: Hard Hat Cafe II at 181 North St. in Wallingford and the Hard Hat Tavern at 100 New Haven Road in Durham
What’s your Hard Hat order: Doob, lemon pepper or something else? Tell us. And if there is a North Haven business or organization you think deserves a profile, we want to hear about it.
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